Conroe ISD committed to excellence and the community

CHEVALIER MAYES

Published
7:00 pm CDT, Wednesday, September 28, 2005

On an average day students, faculty and staff would fill the hallways, cafeterias and classrooms at McCullough Junior High School, Oak Ridge High School, The Woodlands College Park High School, Caney Creek High School and Conroe High School, but from Sept. 22-25 each school was filled with hundreds of stranded motorists and displaced families who took flight from Hurricane Rita.

With very little time for planning and preparation, a large number of CISD faculty, staff, trustees, the Red Cross, community members and local organizations responded swiftly and provided blankets, food, pillows, toiletry items and other things needed for about 4,000 people who sought shelter at the various high schools.

Deserting their families and devoting hours upon hours of their time to ensure others had proper shelter from the hurricane, everyone from bus drivers, to students and custodians pulled together and demonstrated what community and selflessness is all about.

"I am very proud of the school district and the personnel that worked together around the clock, in conjunction with the community, during this crisis," said Don Stockton, CISD's superintendent of schools.

Interfaith of The Woodlands literally emptied its food pantry and gave many supplies and volunteers to help out. Ann Snyder, director of Interfaith, said the organization was designed to assist in situations as such. She said it was amazing how the community came together. CISD, she said, deserves to be commended for the huge part it played.

"When a crisis occurs, regardless of the size, it is Interfaith's job to assist," she said. "We have an extremely generous community. I would like to personally commend the school district because it went above and beyond; every individual did their part, including administrators, teachers and students.

"It was an incredible experience to witness and to see first hand what the community does when it works together. The impact is enormous."

Boy Scout Troop 777 was a part of the entourage that made such a huge impact on the lives of thousands of others those few days. Scoutmaster, Walter Brown, said the troops had members at three of the different high schools set up as shelters.

Brown said the troops did everything from help load Alzheimer's patients onto buses, to distribute supplies like pillows and blankets and transport goods from shelter to shelter. He said he could not be more proud of his troop for stepping up and doing their part.

"I am very happy the troop came out in such numbers and helped the evacuees for many days," he said. "Adults as well as boys from the troop came out. That is what scouting is all about."

Kay Galindo, CISD's director of communications, said McCullough Junior High served about 650 people, TWCP 850, ORHS 850, CCHS, 500 and CHS 450. She said people began leaving the shelters mid morning on Saturday, as soon as they knew everything was alright and they could get gas.

All of the shelters were empty by mid-afternoon on Sunday and none of the schools received any damage from the storm, she said.

Three local restaurants, Skeeters, Outback and Barry's Pizza, delivered and served food hot dogs, pizza and other foods to all of those sheltered in the high schools.

For more information about the Conroe Independent School District, call (936) 441-9207 or visit www.conroeisd.net.